i have spoken to senator pryor about the same issue in arkansas, which probably has similar climate to virginia but it is widespread. and i., like you, don't understand why the best scientists can't come to a conclusion on what is in this drywall. but i will, if confirmed, make sure it gets full attention. and even if we have to use outsourced testing to get to the root of it, we need to find out what is in this drywall making people sick. >> mr. chairman, one thing i said what i. i know what time is a. you heard from both of our colleagues on south carolina. the one thing that inez is famous about is when she gets a hold of a bone she doesn't let go until she figures out an answer. i can't think of a better person on a host of these issues to take them on in this new important role than inez tenenbaum. great to see you. >> thank you. thank you, chairman. hiking for three reason. everybody is going to inez. i will also. first, is both you and your husband are georgians and we're very proud of that. secondly you are a graduate of university of georgia and we're extra proud of that. but

senator pryor? >> thank you. i'll just submit an opening statement for the record. mr. chairman, it's good to have you back in the saddle, feeling 100% and running this committee like you should be. >> thank you. >> mr. chairman, let me also echo what nart psenator pryor s. it's good to have you back in the saddle. we very much appreciate your leadership on this committee. >> do i have to ride horses? >> if you come to my state you're going to ride a horse, okay? we'll saddle you up and you'll do just fine. no doubt about it. i would like to echo also what the ranking member, senator hutchinson said about broadband a and. it is so important, i think, that we get the country connected. and as you, you know, if we look at the various points in our history where we weren't connected, with the railroads in the 1880s, we made a major investment, and we encourage railroads to serve the swier country. and when fdr in the 30s and 40s, we real liz looized we weren't connected with electricity. we brought electricity to rural areas with rural electric co-ops. i really hope that y

senator pryor. >> thank you, mr. chairman. if i may, mr. genachowski, i'd like to just pick up where senator hutchison left off. she was talking about newspaper ownership of broadcast media. i'd like to ask you about the minority ownership of broadcast media, and that is, you know, you can look back. we've made some progress in that area, but i'd like to ask you do you think it's a good public policy that we should encourage more minority ownership of broadcast media? >> my understanding, senator, is that that's the policy of the communications act, to insure the widest possible dissemination of licenses and to pursue diversity in ownership. it's been a value that's been widely shared far long t

senator pryor mac talking about broadband. >> i would like to ask you about this btop, the broadband opportunity program in the stimulus package. do you know much about that, and you have a sense of how that is going to be administered? >> my understanding is that it is the commerce department and the agriculture department that have the grant making authority. dscc, as i understand has responsibilities to consult with those agencies as they put together the plans for distributing. >> i know you were not there yet but is it your understanding the fccism bald? >> my understanding is there has been consultation, yes. >> are you happy with what you hear on that or do think the fcc should be more involved and you think that program is going to actually get to on served areas as senator hutchison was referring to? >> senator, i don't have any access to nonpublic information. from what i have heard publicly, i believe that active, healthy consultation processes are going forward. i think these kinds of activities are ways to demonstrate how government can work together, collaboratively to

thank you senator pryor and hutchison. it's a great honor to be here today and a great honor to accept the president's nomination. and, yes, with your permission, i'd like to sort of introduce the members of my family. first of all, you know, without their love and support, i couldn't do this job. it is they who really bear the brunt of supporting an fcc commissioner. so my love of my life, my bride, the rock of our family and the wind in my sails is my bride jennifer. and then also my son griffin who is suited up to play in the beginning of the vienna little league town championship. their tournament. and so he's been hitting in the .700s all season. applause is welcome. he pitched a no-hitter and as you can imagine, his coach is very eager to have him there on time tonight for the start of the town championship. so he came all suited up ready to go. they will leave, his entourage and he will leave shortly . daughter mary shay. our youngest son cormick who calls himself coco. and my sister tina and my nephew glisten as we

senator pryor. >> i wanted to ask you about the broadband technology and opportunity program in the stimulus package. the new know much about that? you have a sense of how that is going to be administered? >> my understanding is that it is the commerce department and the agriculture department that have the grant making authority. the fcc has responsibilities to consult with those agencies as they put together the plans for administrating -- administering the grants. >> you understand the fcc is involved in this process? >> my understanding is that there is consultation, yes. >> are you happy with what you hear on that, or should be fcc be more involved? will it get to unserved areas as senator hutcheson was referring to? >> senator, i do not have access to public information. from what i have heard publicly, an active healthy policy going forward, these activities are ways to demonstrate how government can work together collaborative lee to pursue a common and. the fcc is the expert agency around communications -- and around the communications infrastructure. it is important that we play ei

. >> i had spoken to senator pryor about the same issue in arkansas, similar climate to virginia but it is widespread. i don't understand what the best scientists can't come to a onfilusion about what is in this drywall. it if confirmed i will make sure it gets full attention. d to if we have to use outsource testing to get to the root of it, we need to find out what is in this dry wall making people sick. >> i know my time is up. oee one the thing inez his famous about, when she gets a whole lot bohn she figures out an answer and i can't think of a better person on a host of these fores to take them on. ereat to see you. >> i came for 3 reasons. we are very proud to be georgians and you're a graduate of the university of georgia and we are proud of that. i have the privilege of chairing nde board of education in the 1990's when he became at yrintendent of education in south carolina and watch what you did in south carolina. you did a marvelous job and demonstrated the attitude somebody should have to deal with difficult problems. i don't really have a question. i want to do 2 endors

signed by 18 senators as follows: reid, pryor, whitehouse, inouye, feingold, dodd, burris, durbin, murray, tester, udall of colorado, klobuchar, reed of rhode island, baucus, merkley, lincoln, cantwell, dorgan. mr. reid: i ask that the mandatory quorum be waived. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. mr. reid: i ask the senate resume legislative session. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: i ask now that we proceed to a period of monk business, senators allowed to speak -- of morning business, senators allowed to speak therein for up to ten minutes each. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: madam president, let me just say a brief word on the cloture that was not invoked on the travel bill. i hope that everyone understands what obstructionism is. this is obstructionism at its best, and it goes along with what the republicans said they wanted to do and that is stop everything. as indicated in "roll call" newspaper last week. this is a bill that saves the government money, almost a half a billion dollars over ten years. it would create

finally, senator pryor. i. >> i each not going to give an opening statement. i would like to submit a letter from one of my car dealers into the record if that's possible. thank you. i thought you would like that. oh. >> i'm sorry. i didn't see you walk in. we welcome your statement. >> thank you. i will try to be merciful for our analysts, too, who have been here far long time and submit a statement to the record. but do look forward to hearing from the panelists today about their plans with respect to the dealers across the country. many of us didn't support the auto bailout, but the fact remains taxpayers are now a very big part of this industry. and we have an op ligation to make sure those resources are used well and also to make sure that they're in the -- when we make decisions that support the manufacturers, we also give consideration to the thoufs car deerls across the country who are impact ed and could be losig livelihoods through no fault of their own. i'm anxious to hear from the panelists today and look forward to posing questions later on. thank

senator pryor? >> thank you. i would like to pick up where senator hutchins finished off. she was talking about newspaper ownership of broadcast media. i would like to ask you about the minority ownership of broadcast media. we've made progress in that area. i would like to ask you, do you think it's a good public policy that we should encourage more minority ownership of broadcast media? >> my understanding, senator, is that's the policy of the communications act, to ensure the widest possible dissemination of licenses and to pursue diversity in ownership. it's been a value that's been widely shared for a long time. and the dat thata that i've sees not leave one with a good taste about ha wr we stand now as a country on that. >> do you have ideas what we can do to try to make ownership of broadcast outlets more possible for minority interests? >> i think the first thing possibly is to make sure that we understand what's actually going on out there. i've been told that the data with respect to ownership now is not satisfactory and there's work that can be done to understan

. >> senator pryor. >> thank you, mr. chairman ed thank you, madame secretary. let me start if i may with the issue of competitiveness, excuse me, comparative effectiveness research. my understanding is this research has great potential to in power patients and physicians to choose treatments that offered the most benefit however some of the attacked this initiative claiming that it could be used to ration care. t you mind talking to the committee a few minutes about comparative effectiveness research and why you think the department is in a better position to the private sector to ensure this research is performed? >> welcome senator, i think that to the point you made citing detractors who are feel all of this would lead to rationing care there is a provision in the funding of the research that prohibits medicare from using comparative effectiveness research to make cost decisions. i think that is clear in full all and certainly the folks at cms intend to follow the law. we are very encouraged by the opportunity to lure from what is happening in this rapidly e

senator pryor and senator hutchison and other members of the committee, thank you again for the opportunity to appear before you today. this concludes my statement, and i look forward to answering your questions. >> thank you, commissioner mcdowell. what i'll do now is turn it over to senator hutchison who has an appointment she needs to get to. senator hutchison. >> yes, and i want to especially say good luck to griffin. i am very impressed, and i am going to make this statement publicly. tonight, i am going to be watching the university of texas longhorns in the college world series. and i am asking you right now to consider going to the university of texas and playing baseball because i know you have a future. so consider it a recruitment. good luck tonight. mr. mcdowell, i want to ask you a couple of the questions. first o all, on the fairness doctrine, that is something that is very important to many people. and reinstating it is something that everyone i know thinks would be a bad idea. and i wanted to ask you if you see any signs of commission -- the commission moving in that directi

and as senator pryor just talked border boxes i'd little be very interested in how you proceed and for the same reasons as someone who has a young child, someone asked me what shows have i watched recently and he's a little under 7 and he started to describe a sitcom. i have no clue what they were talking about. it wasn't on -- i wasn't publicize one channel but i'll say pbs was the other channel. if it's not on those two i have no clue what's on the regular shows unless it's a newscast. i'm very interested as you proceed as chair on the fcc. let me, if i can, and you and i talked briefly about this in the universal service fund and how important that is at least for our state a very rural state and i like to describe here in this committee extreme rural, the distance and the travel and the complexity of transportation of these locations but also just the climate conditions really creates some unique situations. under the -- and i know there's talk about reform and as that moves forward, there'll be issues of concern for us as alaska is identified if i'm not mistaken it's 100% tribal,

thank you, senator pryor and hutchinson. it's a great honor to accept the president's nomination. with your permission, i would like to introduce members of my family. first o all, without their love and support, i couldn't do this job. it is they who support the brunt of supporting an f.c.c. commissioner. so my love of my life, the wind in my sails is my wife jennifer. and also my wife griffin who is suited up to play in the beginning of the vienna little league town championship, their tournament. so he's been hitting in the .700's all season. applause is welcome. he pitched a no-hitter. and as you can imagine his coach is very eager to have him time tonight for the start of the championship. he came in suited up. he will leave shortly after my opening statement. my beautiful daughter mary shae. our youngest son cormic who calls himself coco. my sister, and my nephew clewiston. and my brother-in-law donny motes. >> sh and of course i oh everything to my parents. my father passed a way this february. our thoughts and prayers are with them but, especially today. i would also like

the largest contract ever given an amateur player is 10.5 million to mark pryor of the cubs in 2001. now people are throwing around numbers like 20, 30 and even 50 million for strous-berg. how are negotiations going and more important is there a limit how much you can invest in one player especially someone who's never played a professional game? >> well, obviously i never negotiate in the press and by not going to today. i will talk about stephen. one of the cool things, and again something i discussed, steve mckelvie and johnny cox and bob stultz, one of the cool things about the rotation we are putting together is for rookies and 124-year-old is that we are developing the same kind of atmosphere that we had an atlanta. a great closeness, a great friendship, but also the other side of that great competitiveness where they want to help do the other. but the also want to pick the other one up. that kind of cohesion really bodes well for the future. it's what we had in atlanta and other places as i said steve had it in oakland. it's what we are developing here and what is very cool ab